Job 31:17-18

31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,

and did not share any of it with orphans ¹  –

31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan ²  like a father,

and from my mother’s womb ³ 

I guided the widow! ⁴ 

[31:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”

[31:18]  ² tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.

[31:18]  ³ tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”

[31:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.